Vagrant box for Raspberry Pi (arm) cross-compiling using Vagrant, VirtualBox, Ansible and Python

Requirements:

I'm using a Mac OS X (El Capitan - Version 10.11.3) with the next tools:

• VirtualBox 5.0.16
• Vagrant 1.8.1
• Ansible 2.0.1.0 (installed via Pip)
• Python 2.7.11
• Raspberry Pi 2 Model B
• Raspbian OS (2015-09-24-raspbian-jessie.img)
• OpenFramework v0.9.0 for cross-compiling (http://openframeworks.cc/versions/v0.9.0/of_v0.9.0_linuxarmv7l_release.tar.gz)

Preparing the Raspberry Pi

1. Copy RPi image to SD

Identify the disk (not partition) of your SD card, unmount and copy the image there:

$ diskutil list
$ diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk2
$ cd /Users/Chilcano/Downloads/@isos_vms/raspberrypi-imgs
$ sudo dd bs=1m if=2015-09-24-raspbian-jessie.img of=/dev/rdisk2

2. Connect the Raspberry Pi directly to your Host (MAC OS X)

Using an ethernet cable, connect your Raspberry Pi to your Host, in my case I've a MAC OS X and I'm going to share my WIFI Network connection. Then, enabling Internet Sharing and the "Thunderbolt Ethernet" an IP address will be assigned to the Raspberry Pi, also Raspberry Pi will have Internet access/Network access and the MAC OS X can connect via SSH to the Raspberry Pi. All that will be possible without a hub, switch, router, screen or keyboard, etc. This will be useful, because we are going to install new software in Raspberry Pi.

After connect your Raspberry Pi to your MAC OS X, turn on by connecting an USB cable, in your MAC OS X open a Terminal and issue a SSH command, before re-generate the SSH keys.

Note that the default hostname of any Raspberry Pi is raspberrypi.local.

// cleaning existing keys
$ ssh-keygen -R raspberrypi.local

// connect to RPi using `raspberry` as default password
$ ssh pi@raspberrypi.local

After connecting, you will check the assigned IP address and the shared Internet Connection. Now, check out your connection.

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ ping www.docker.com

3. Configure your RPi

Boot your RPi and open a shell. Then enter:

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo raspi-config

In the raspi-config menu, select Option 1 Expand Filesystem, change Keyboard layout, etc. and reboot.

Just if mirrordirector.raspbian.org mirror is not available, remove http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org/raspbian/ repository and add a newest.

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

#deb http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org/raspbian/ jessie main contrib non-free rpi
deb http://ftp.cica.es/mirrors/Linux/raspbian/raspbian/ jessie main contrib non-free rpi

# Uncomment line below then 'apt-get update' to enable 'apt-get source'
#deb-src http://archive.raspbian.org/raspbian/ jessie main contrib non-free rpi

4. Install OpenFrameworks tools and dependencies into Raspberry Pi

Download and unzip OpenFrameworks into RPi under /opt.

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ cd /opt
pi@raspberrypi:/opt $ sudo wget http://openframeworks.cc/versions/v0.9.0/of_v0.9.0_linuxarmv7l_release.tar.gz
pi@raspberrypi:/opt $ sudo tar -zxf of_v0.9.0_linuxarmv7l_release.tar.gz
pi@raspberrypi:/opt $ sudo rm of_v0.9.0_linuxarmv7l_release.tar.gz

Now, update the dependencies required when cross-compiling by running install_dependencies.sh.

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo /opt/of_v0.9.0_linuxarmv7l_release/scripts/linux/debian/install_dependencies.sh

Now, compile oF, compile and execute an oF example.

// compiling oF
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo make Release -C /opt/of_v0.9.0_linuxarmv7l_release/libs/openFrameworksCompiled/project
...
se/libs/openFrameworksCompiled/lib/linuxarmv7l/obj/Release/libs/openFrameworks/math/ofMatrix4x4.o /opt/of_v0.9.0_linuxarmv7l_release/libs/openFrameworksCompiled/lib/linuxarmv7l/obj/Release/libs/openFrameworks/math/ofQuaternion.o /opt/of_v0.9.0_linuxarmv7l_release/libs/openFrameworksCompiled/lib/linuxarmv7l/obj/Release/libs/openFrameworks/math/ofVec2f.o
HOST_OS=Linux
HOST_ARCH=armv7l
checking pkg-config libraries:   cairo zlib gstreamer-app-1.0 gstreamer-1.0 gstreamer-video-1.0 gstreamer-base-1.0 libudev freetype2 fontconfig sndfile openal openssl libpulse-simple alsa gtk+-3.0
Done!
make: Leaving directory '/opt/of_v0.9.0_linuxarmv7l_release/libs/openFrameworksCompiled/project'

// executing an example
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo make -C /opt/of_v0.9.0_linuxarmv7l_release/apps/myApps/emptyExample
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ cd /opt/of_v0.9.0_linuxarmv7l_release/apps/myApps/emptyExample
pi@raspberrypi /opt/of_v0.9.0_linuxarmv7l_release/apps/myApps/emptyExample $ bin/emptyExample

5. Make an new image file from the existing and updated Raspberry Pi

Remove the SD card from the Raspberry Pi, insert the SD card in your Host (in my case is MAC OS X) and use dd to make an new image file.

$ diskutil list
$ diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk2
$ sudo dd bs=1m if=/dev/rdisk2 of=2015-09-24-raspbian-jessie-of2.img

15279+0 records in
15279+0 records out
16021192704 bytes transferred in 381.968084 secs (41943799 bytes/sec)

Very important:

• The 2015-09-24-raspbian-jessie-of.img will be shared and after mounted from the guest VM, for that, set the user and permissions to 2015-09-24-raspbian-jessie-of.img as shown below:

$ sudo chmod +x 2015-09-24-raspbian-jessie-of2.img
$ sudo chown Chilcano 2015-09-24-raspbian-jessie-of2.img

$ ls -la
total 110439056
drwxr-xr-x  33 Chilcano  staff         1122 Apr 11 19:12 ./
drwxr-xr-x  35 Chilcano  staff         1190 Mar 23 19:26 ../
-rwxr-xr-x   1 Chilcano  staff  16021192704 Apr 11 19:19 2015-09-24-raspbian-jessie-of2.img*
-rwxr-xr-x   1 Chilcano  staff   4325376000 Apr 11 17:02 2015-09-24-raspbian-jessie.img*
...

Building the Vagrant box

1. In your MAC OS X, to clone the rpi-build-and-boot github repository

$ git clone https://github.com/twobitcircus/rpi-build-and-boot
$ cd rpi-build-and-boot

Copy/Move the newest RPi image created above into rpi-build-and-boot folder.

$ mv /Users/Chilcano/Downloads/@isos_vms/raspberrypi-imgs/2015-09-24-raspbian-jessie-of2.img .

2. Install Vagrant and vbguest plugin into MAC OS X

$ wget https://releases.hashicorp.com/vagrant/1.8.1/vagrant_1.8.1.dmg
$ vagrant plugin install vagrant-vbguest

3. Create a new Vagrantfile with VirtualBox as provider in the same folder rpi-build-and-boot

Here the Vagrantfile (https://github.com/chilcano/vagrant-rpi-build-and-boot/blob/master/Vagrantfile) for VirtualBox.

4. Getting boot and root partitions offsets to do loop mounting in Vagrant

Using ./tool.py offsets <my_image.img> I will get the offsets of the boot and root partitions, after getting offset, copy the output of this tool to the top of playbook.yml. To run tool.py in MAC OS X, you will need Python configured.

$ ./tool.py offsets 2015-09-24-raspbian-jessie-of2.img

    image: 2015-09-24-raspbian-jessie-of2.img
    offset_boot: 4194304
    offset_root: 62914560

The idea to loop-mount the RPi image is to create a full structure of directories and files of a Raspberry Pi distribution under a mounting-point in a Vagrant box. This structure is required to do cross-compiling and move/copy new binaries and ARM cross-compiled binaries.

5. Mounting Raspberry Pi image and booting from Vagrant using NFS

Using ./tool.py netboot image.img /dev/rdiskX [--ip=10.0.0.Y] you will copy just the boot partition in a new and tiny SD card. This new SD card with a fresh boot partition will be useful to boot from the network/remotely. The RPi will download the root partition from Vagrant, in fact, Vagrant will be sharing the custom RPi image (2015-09-24-raspbian-jessie-of2.img) via NFS to any Raspberry Pi connected to same network and having a pre-loaded boot partition.

The idea behind is to provision a custom RPi image massively avoiding to waste time copying and creating SD card for each Raspberry Pi. Also, this method is useful to provision software, configuration, packages, or in my case, provide cross-compiled software for ARM architectures massively.

$ diskutil list

// a new SD on disk3 will be used
$ diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk3

$ ./tool.py netboot 2015-09-24-raspbian-jessie-of2.img /dev/rdisk3

Note that tool.py netboot automatically will assigns to RPi the 10.0.0.101 as IP address and 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 as DNS servers to eth0. You can check or modify previously these values by editing the cmdline.txt file placed in the boot RPi partition. You can edit it from a running Raspberry Pi or from a mounted partition.

6. Download and unzip oF (OpenFramework) into rpi-build-and-boot folder

If you forgot copy OpenFramework in your RPi, you can do now. Using the Ansible playbook.yml, the oF will be copied to your RPi.

$ cd rpi-build-and-boot
$ wget http://openframeworks.cc/versions/v0.9.0/of_v0.9.0_linuxarmv7l_release.tar.gz
$ tar -zxf of_v0.9.0_linuxarmv7l_release.tar.gz

7. Update the Ansible playbook.yml

I've had to tweak the playbook.yml to avoid warnings, add DNS to cmdline.txt and add iptables filters to get Internet access on RPi using Host shared NIC.

Here the updated Ansible playbook.yml (https://github.com/chilcano/vagrant-rpi-build-and-boot/blob/master/playbook.yml).

8. Create the Vagrant box

$ cd rpi-build-and-boot
$ vagrant up --provider virtualbox

... let's have coffee ;)

After that, restart the Vagrant box recently created.

$ vagrant halt
$ vagrant up

Connect your Raspberry Pi -with the SD card and boot partition copied- using ethernet clable to your Host PC (in my case is a Mac OS X), wait some seconds and check if Raspberry Pi has started from the root partition shared by NFS from the Vagrant box.

$ ping raspberrypi.local
$ ping 10.0.0.101

And check if Raspberry Pi is running but from Vagrant box.

$ vagrant ssh

vagrant@vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64:~$ ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 08:00:27:c9:24:d6
          inet addr:10.0.2.15  Bcast:10.0.2.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::a00:27ff:fec9:24d6/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:665 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:427 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:67162 (67.1 KB)  TX bytes:54225 (54.2 KB)

eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 08:00:27:b3:e9:a4
          inet addr:10.0.0.1  Bcast:10.0.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::a00:27ff:feb3:e9a4/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:29474 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:60947 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:5247033 (5.2 MB)  TX bytes:70887820 (70.8 MB)

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:65536  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

vagrant@vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64:~$ ping 10.0.0.101

vagrant@vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64:~$ ping google.com

9. Check if ARM cross-compiling works in the VirtualBox guest

Check if the cross-compiling Variables have been defined.

vagrant@vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64:~$ cat /home/vagrant/.profile

...
export GST_VERSION=1.0
export RPI_ROOT=/opt/raspberrypi/root
export TOOLCHAIN_ROOT=/opt/cross/bin
export PLATFORM_OS=Linux
export PLATFORM_ARCH=armv7l
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$RPI_ROOT/usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/pkgconfig:$RPI_ROOT/usr/share/pkgconfig:$RPI_ROOT/usr/lib/pkgconfig

Check if RPi has been mounted.

vagrant@vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64:~$ ll /opt/raspberrypi/boot/
vagrant@vagrant-ubuntu-trusty-64:~$ ll /opt/raspberrypi/root/

And check if oF works by compiling an example.

$ make -C /opt/openframeworks/apps/myApps/emptyExample